Live COOKING demonstration - French omelet

Okay, hopefully we're back. Sorry about the technical difficulties but I'm just going to show you guys my plate. This is my first meal today. I'm only eating two meals a day. Life gets busy so that's what's working for me. So you'll see here I have my apple cider vinegar tea with lemon and the honey substitute syrup and then my French omelet. I'm going to cut into it so you guys can see. So we've got our French omelet that's cooked well on the outside and then when you cut into it, I don't know if you guys are able to see it rolled up into itself. I'm going to take a test. I made a mess earlier but I'm hungry. I'm sorry, it's so good. It's just eggs, butter, and salt. Very simple ingredients but again that's the technique. There's no cheese inside but if you guys are able to see it looks almost like there is. So this is my first meal for the day. All right, so let's see what else I wanted to show you guys. We had a food giveaway today. I really just want to put my face in this and eat it. I'll take one more bite and then I'm going to show you guys what else I got and where some of my inspiration comes from. I'm going to stir my tea and take a sip of it. One of the things that I've learned, hot beverages, hot teas. I can have unlimited unsweet tea on my plan. It's helped me to keep from snacking. Okay, not bad. I put two tablespoons of the apple cider vinegar in there but that's good. So tomorrow I'll go back to regular eating. Today I'm just doing the egg and apple fast. You can also do it with eggs and strawberries. Eight or nine eggs in a day. You know, probably three or four apples in a day or up to 12 strawberries in a day. All right, so yesterday one of the things that I talked about, I think it was Snuggles who asked a question and I might have dropped them. I'm sorry guys, next time I won't do that. I won't change any settings on the fly. Snuggles had asked a question about, you know, world events and I said that, how long do I go in between meals? I'll answer that question. So I don't want to say, you know, it kind of depends on my schedule. I try not to go more than three or four hours. Ideally for me, I'll have like a meal and then in a couple hours I'll have a snack and then, you know, a meal, snack, meal. That's ideal. But I had a busy morning. Sometimes I'm back to back in meetings. So right now it's 12 30 my time. This is my first meal of the day and then I'll probably eat again to me maybe between four and five and then I'll be done. But what I'm constantly doing, soups, broths, anything to kind of keep, you know, some liquid in me, you know, not for any type of weight loss, but just because sometimes I only have time to make something to drink. Hopefully that answers your question. All right, so one of the things I shared with you guys was the response to Snuggle's question about groceries. And I'll tell the story again in case anybody missed it yesterday. But one of the things that I do, you know, kind of embarrassingly, but or not for fun, is I like to pick up food boxes from the giveaway. How did that happen? So you may or may not know that I'm also an Airbnb hostess. So my home has an in-law suite that I rent out. And I had a woman stay with me a couple years ago when the pandemic first started. And she was volunteering at a local church. And when she was done with her volunteering, she came home. And she said, I brought this for you and the boys. And I looked at it and it was a box of all kind of produce and, you know, meats. And I was like, what in the world is this? You know, thankfully, I've always worked. So I've never qualified for any assistance, still don't. But I think with the, you know, pandemic and other programs, there are food banks and other things that are partnered with local churches in the areas, kind of like distribution centers to give away food. So because I'm so thankful that I'm able to work from home, if my schedule allows, you know, I'll go through the drive-thru and literally they have a line with the combs, you pull up, you don't even have to get out of your vehicle, they open your trunk, they put a box in it, they close your trunk and you're on your way. So it's almost like a little, this sounds so lame, but it's almost kind of like a little mystery box for me. And some of the creativity that I had in coming up with new recipes has been because I didn't have to spend the money on the ingredients. You know, there's nothing like buying stuff, trying to cook it, you mess it up and then you're mad because it doesn't taste good. You know, you're still hungry and then you wasted money on the ingredients. The other thing that I shared with you all is, you know, I don't eat as much. And so when I get these food boxes, I do have neighbors that are seniors. Some of them don't have transportation. Some of them have the grandkids dropped off, you know, without warning. And so they have been very grateful. When I get, you know, everything, anything, I usually give away like 80 to 90% of it. But before I do, I always go through just to see if there's anything new that I want to try. So in addition to me going when I have time, you know, my parents are thankfully still with me and both retired. And so they have kind of made a little outing of it too. It gets them out of the house and my dad can drive Miss Daisy and then, you know, they'll go pick up stuff. And if they have extra, they'll bring it by. So my dad dropped off today. So I'm just going to go through what was in today's giveaway and give you guys some ideas as to what I think of as far as substitutions. And I'll let you know what I'm keeping and what I'm not. So we had a cabbage come in today. I'm going to give this away because I already have a cabbage, but this is great. If you like lettuce wraps where you ground, you know, meat, ground beef, ground turkey, or if you eat pork with some ginger and soy sauce and, you know, Asian seasonings like shredded carrot, if you could have that. And then just like you would make lettuce wraps with actual lettuce, you can do the same thing and put it in the cabbage leaf, roll it up, and kind of eat it like a little taco. That's definitely an option. Cabbage is great, you know, with just salt, pepper, and some butter as a stir fry. Some onions in here. I have plenty of onions, so I'll be giving these away. I like to prep onions down in, you know, saute them, sometimes keep them raw, but usually when these are the types of veggies that I would chop up, spend a day to go ahead and cook them down. So I have sauteed onions that I can top on a burger or I can, you know, put in an omelet or whatever. Sweet potatoes. I don't eat sweet potatoes, so these I'm going to give away. A great substitute for sweet potatoes, butternut squash. Hi Siobhan! A great substitute is butternut squash. So if you like sweet potato fries or mashed sweet potato, if you buy butternut squash, maybe one day I'll do this for you guys. It makes a great soup, but you can also buy it already cut and cubed and then you just toss it in a little bit of melted butter or oil of your choice with the brown, excuse me, brown sugar substitute and some cinnamon. Put it in the air fryer, you know, cook it fast under high heat, excuse me, so that it caramelizes. It melts in your mouth, so butternut squash is a great substitute. I've got a couple bags of spinach in here. I already have fresh spinach in the fridge, so I'm going to be giving these away, but spinach is great. Tomorrow when we make our crab cakes, I'll probably make a spinach salad out of mine. Spinach is great to put in omelets. It'll wilt down really nicely. You can blend it and make different sauces. Great things you can do with spinach. And then raw broccoli. I'll probably give these away too. I have some frozen broccoli. I make a really good loaded broccoli, so if you think of a loaded baked potato, basically you would take your broccoli and you would toss it in oil and then you would put it, I use the air fryer all the time, you can use the oven or the air fryer, and let it start to like char a little bit and then you take it out. You have it in like a metal pan and then you sprinkle the shredded cheese of your choice. You know I use goat's cheese. If you eat pork, you could do bacon or turkey bacon. If you have dairy, you could do sour cream. Basically anything that you would put on a loaded baked potato, you use broccoli as the base and put all your toppings on it. That's an excellent substitute. Very filling, gives you lots of flavor and fiber. All right, so I don't think I'm gonna keep anything that was in this part of the giveaway. Let's see what else we got. And I'm gonna take a bite of my omelet. Trying to inhale it quickly. I don't want to be, you know, eating. I want to cook for you all when I'm not too hungry, but I was really hungry, so I'm feeling better. Something interesting that came in the giveaway today, I don't know if anyone has ever seen this. It says Milkadamia. I've never heard of this brand and it's basically unsweetened macadamia milk. So one of the things that I love, you know, with the plan that I'm on, the metabolic specialist that I have, if I'm ever curious about an ingredient, I can take a picture of this and text it to her and say, hey can I have this? And she'll say yes or no. And that's how I've kind of branched out from just the plain menu that was given to me. Because you know, if you don't ask, it's always going to be a no. But if you're sensitive to cow dairy, you guys know that I do almond milk. I've also seen cashew milk, so not surprising. But this says unsweetened macadamia milk. So I will keep this and if it's approved for me, I may give it a try in a coffee as a creamer. What else do I use the almond milk for? Chai lattes. So many different things and see how the macadamia nut milk compares. So let me know if anybody's ever used that as a substitute. You can already guess this is going away. This is a beautiful loaf. It looks like sourdough from Publix bakery. I would love to put this in the toaster with some butter and smear it on there and enjoy myself. But I am sensitive to gluten. So I can't have breads. So when I eat like this, I enjoy it. But I am achy and stiff. And I just, you know, made the decision that if I'm going to go off plan, it's going to be for a special occasion. So this is something that I had to give up. So it's a nice, soft, beautiful loaf of bread, but I'm going to have to give this away. What have we talked about as a substitute for breads? You guys saw my cassava tortillas. Speaking of tortillas, the crepini, I've got an order coming in soon. So I'll do another unboxing for you guys. But I found ways to get over not being able to have bread, chaffles, all of that. The last thing that was in the giveaway box was a HelloFresh meal kit. And this one says cheesy turkey and poblano tostadas. So it came with flour tortillas. I can't have this. So you So my substitute for regular flour tortillas is the cassava tortilla. This one counts as a vegetable for me. You can see it's gluten free. It's made from cassava flour instead of regular flour. And like I told you, you know, these are a little bit craggly, a little bit more delicate. But when you warm them, they cook up nicely. So that's the substitution that I've made to get off of regular flour. I got a poblano pepper. I probably will keep this. I've seen some really nice recipes for stuffed peppers. These are the ones that they put over the fire and char them. So I may give that a try. A lemon. I'll save this for tomorrow. We're making crab cakes in our cookalong class. Tomato, it got a little bit mushy. There's some sour cream in here and a red onion. I have yellow onion so I may keep the red onion. Those are a little bit milder. They're great raw on a burger or in a salad. And then just some other spices and seasonings. So I know that's a little bit off the wall. But you know, I wanted to share with you guys, you know, the reality that, you know, even though food insecurity is not an issue for me, clearly, you know, some people are struggling. So if you know people or if you are someone who, you know, you would like to have, you know, some variety and, you know, money is an issue, check your local area for, you know, churches or food banks that have, you know, sometimes weekly giveaways. You know, for me, you know, I can say it's kind of like a sport, kind of like going garage sale shopping or whatever, just to see what you can find. But this is a way that I keep some new, you know, get experience to some new ingredients and without having to spend the money. Now, here's the thing. If I find something and it's happened to me before, if I get something in the giveaway box that is approved for my plan and I really like it, most definitely I'm going to bring that into the rotation, add it to my grocery list, find it online because my food list is pretty specific. And so when I find something that works for me, I stick with it. All right, I know I dropped you guys on Facebook and YouTube. Let me see if there's any questions. Okay, I don't want to mess anything up because I changed the internet on you guys before. All right, so I think that's it. We made our apple cider vinegar tea. Again, lemon, sweetener, apple cider vinegar, and your hot water. And we talked about the giveaways and we made the French omelet. So I'll probably come on later tonight after I clean all this up. But thank you all for tuning in. I really appreciate it. I am Maggie, the substitute teacher on all platforms. Again, take a look out for our live cookalong tomorrow, 1 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, level one, just watch. Level two, watch and cook off camera. Level three, watch, cook, and join us in the live stream. So if you're interested in that, inbox me and let me know so I can make sure you're set up. And I will see you guys probably later tonight, but definitely tomorrow. All right, bye for now.